A New Age is a series of what used to be one-shot Pathfinder adventures that slowly came together in a plot. Hosted by Renagade and set in a world Parallel to Golarion named Catheridge, specifically on the continental islands known as Palagaia.
The story starts in the town of Desna's Gate, 24 days before the ushering of the year 1600 D.R. Or Dragon's Reckoning. It's a calm, brisk day in the city's market district, when suddenly, a commotion is heard and a kobold thief runs dashing off with a merchant's holy symbol. Nigh instantly, our foolhardy heroes chase after the thief into the city's catacombs. Once they handle the kobolds therein and apprehend the thief, the group decides to form an Adventure Guild in order to go on quests to help the common folk, since the call for heroes has long since died away and the need was no longer needed in this world of light.
However, as time went on for this guild, a looming threat, known as the Obsidian Army, slowly made itself known to the adventurers. The army gathers in secret, plotting to bring about a war to rend the world asunder and plunge it back into darkness. Only time will tell what the adventurers will learn of the army, and what they can do to stop it.
The campaign has since come to a happy close and conclusion. Having had a 33 session run. Its archive can be read here
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A New Age contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The Orpheus/Ophelia storyline. Most things related to Orpheus in general. While Ophelia's soul was eventually freed, it never was revealed if she was revived or not or if they got back together.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Vincent when using diplomacy to get the party onto an already overloaded and well-supplied caravan.Vincent: We have magical gear, equipment, items, an alchemist to make potions, including some to make sure our horses don't die out there, an oracle to heal anyone who gets injured, a few other spellcasters for additional protection and safety, I can play a mean violin and provide entertainment along the way, and I also have a flaming sword.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: One particular example stands out with Vincent and King Aldias during the Siege of Imperium, where both characters leaped from the wall to meet the Obsidian Army's advance in person.
- Beyond the Impossible: The Sky Worm. The largest size a creature can be in D&D is Colossal. The Sky Worm was as large as four colossal creatures in a line.
- Big Damn Heroes: Imperium had fallen, its gates breached, the Obsidian Army on the doorstep of the very king's tower. Raus was off on a private mission, so the party was short their leader. They had fought to the last man, spells and bodies exhausted. Arcus himself was about to lead the final attack, and then... the clouds broke, descending from the heavens themselves was Raus, screaming for the future of Palagaia. Behind him, a contingent of no less than three-hundred Metallic Dragons, all bearing freshly trained dragoons. The Obsidian Army scattered like roaches.
- Black-and-White Morality: The premise of the campaign, really. A troupe of just and heroic adventurers, most of whom are distantly related to an even more famous group of heroes, are working to thwart the plans of a dark and evil army of chaos and destruction.
- Body-Count Competition: Several across the campaign. The End of Act One. The Siege of Morden and Imperium. Players were keeping count of how many kills they were making across the campaign.
- Book Ends: The campaign starts and ends in Desna's Gate.
- Boring, but Practical: Mickey. All he ever used was boring mundane bows and sneak attacks. No flashy magic, no crazy damage bonus. No glowy, flaming ultimate sword of asskickery. Hell, his ultimate weapon was literally just an old, dingy, well used bow. It was just him, a whole lot of arrows, and a good strong, composite longbow. Mickey is up there for best damage dealer and highest body count in the game.
- Breather Episode:
- Setting Sail had more or less no combat and was just there for the party to have lots of silly antics after the otherwise serious and long End of Act One.
- There have been quite a few sessions in which the party simply kicks back and relaxes. Notably the episodes Firestone Rift, Refuge In Audacity, and The World Tree consist of mainly nothing but chat and laid back character development.
- Catchphrase: "We get that a lot." In response to being told that the party is strange or weird.
- Cerebus Syndrome: Surely yet slowly, the sessions have gone from happy-go-lucky comedic one shots to a serious and engaging plot... Mostly.
- Clockwork Creature: The Shrine of the Gold Orb was predominantly filled with Clockwork Golems.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Considering that the big bad is called the Obsidian Army, anyone in black armor is likely not a good guy.
- Convection, Schmonvection: The party when they visited Firestone Rift. Dwarves must have a very good heat tolerance. And drink ale with low boiling points. And not use paper or flammable clothes.
- Copy-and-Paste Environments: Maptool is a great device for playing D&D and Pathfinder online, but in terms of backgrounds and tokens, it is still rather limited, leading to a few instances of this.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The first fight with Arcus more or less lasted one round and ended when his dragon fried the entire party with its Breath Weapon.
- Deus ex Machina: Tiamat promptly unleashed a very powerful attack that should have immolated the entire party to ash, if it weren't for the fact that Apsunote delivered a very timely astral teleport for them to his personal plane of existance. Nice timing, Apsu.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- The End of Act One. Absolutely no one was expecting three dragon riders to come and completely sack the city. Except maybe Lucien.
- Neither did anyone possibly foresee the bomb of Eliza being blood-related to the campaign's BBEG.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Mickey planted a dead mouse under Eliza's bed. In return, Eliza bolted his bed to the ceiling and put an ash pile on top of it.
- Distant Finale: The last session had this:
- Vincent stayed in Desna's Gate for sometime before taking The Dragon Chaser to the mainland and heading to Ambition City to start up a branch of the Adventure's Guild there, Kyrie by his side at all times and treating him like a younger brother.
- Raus and Anna eventually got married at Aurumspire and tagged along with Vincent and Kyrie, continuing their search for the assassin, Kernst.
- Mickey and Eliza had two children, Michael "Mick" Quinn The Third and Keist Arcus Quinn, who both grew up to be powerful fighters. They also went with Vincent to Ambition city, where Mickey started up his own fighting dojo.
- Iria and Trieze remained in Palagaia, working for the guild and having triplets. Iria would stay and watch them grow, but not before taking a certain test of divinity.
- And Aerlissa followed Vincent to Ambition City and set up shop in an old Mage's Tower, working on ways to extend lifespans and make life easier for the people of the burgeoning metropolis.
- Doomed Hometown: Desna's Gate was sacked by three dragon riders and a small force of knights. Suffice to say the heroes didn't stay there much longer.
- Dragon Rider: The custom made Dragoon prestige class, along with the 5 Dragoons of Legend and the Generals of the Obsidian Army. More or less the entire party is this trope now also.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Averted. The party is largely regarded as great heroes in every town the visit. The fact that most of them ride around on dragons and save the day probably aids in this. In addition, when they visited the high king, he gave them his full support, access to his personal armory and court wizard, and even promoted them to the status of nobility.
- Easing into the Adventure: It was ten sessions before the actual plot happened.
- Fantasy World Map: Have a look!◊
- Foe-Tossing Charge: The party acquired a magic item in the Fire Temple that essentially allows them to do this. It puts the "Bull" in "Bull Rush."
- Global Currency: The standard Gold Piece.
- Godhood Seeker: Arcus. He actually becomes Tiamat. But that's fine, as he atones and, unlike the previous Tiamat, was very much not interested in going on a world-wide rampage.
- Gondor Calls for Aid: What Raus was doing before the aforementioned Big Damn Heroes moment. He went to Aurumspire, where he was raised, to plead with his mentor and surrogate father, Aurexiar, to call a Convocation of Dragons. Such a thing hadn't happened in over 1600 years, and when it did, well, the years are called "Dragon Reckoning" for a reason. Raus absolutely crushed his Diplomacy roll, convincing the old dragon to call the Convocation. The results of which you've already seen.
- Groin Attack: Done with Eliza's face, of all things, to Orpheus. Cue them both insisting that it was Not What It Looks Like.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: The party's first fight against Arcus. Even with Lucien and Vanessa Dershire there to help.
- Hurricane of EuphemismsVincent: So... Iria. How good is Trieze? Is he cocksure?
Iria: ...Huh?
Raus: Damnit Vincent.
Vincent: Does he... Curl your toes? Dwarf your beard? Sheath his Vandal? Breath his fire? Pudding your peach? Float your frigate? Tongue your Mad? Legend your Dragoon? How about "Satisfy a demand of Gorum"? Praise your Desna? Caddis your Katie? Dampen your Divine? Set your Star? How about Gnarl your Fang, or Drunk your Orpheus? That's an old one.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: The first thing Tathar the Archmage does after completing the ritual that turned Eliza into a Half Dragon was collapse in his chair and use a minor telekinesis spell to bring him a bottle of wine. And then promptly drink all of it.
- Interspecies Romance: Floats around in the history and campaign in general. At least one of the five Dragoons of Legend got busy with their dragon mount. And three members of the party are in known romantic relations with their mounts.
- Karma Houdini: Kernst. This man practically orchestrated and was largely responsible for unsealing Tiamat and played the party like a goddamn fiddle. And the most he ever got in retribution was one solid, yet very much survivable, Smite Evil from Raus before teleporting away. He's yet to be seen since.
- Lava Adds Awesome: Firestone Rift and The Orb Of The Fire Temple. Ren pulled out all the stops with that lava tile.
- Lethal Lava Land: Firestone Rift, being built over a huge lake of lava, The Temple Of The Fire Orb is built into a freaking volcano also.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Deal enough overkill damage to an enemy's HP, and this gets announced as what happens to said enemy.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: The party brings the Green orb to Desna's Gate, just to have three Dragon Riders come and sack the city and steal it. Bad guys win!
- Million to One Chance: Mickey threw a grappling hook (improvised weapon) at a dragon in flight (out of thrown range) to attempt to grapple its tail (combat manoeuvre). Not only did he roll a natural 20 to automatically succeed. He did this twice. On the same dragon.
- Mithril: Most of the party wears mithril armor these days.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Dryst the Mad. The Obsidian Army.
- Nominal Importance: Ren's pretty good at giving NPCs names on the fly, if the characters are willing to ask. Of course, most of the time the character's don't even bother to ask.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Ren has a pretty strict attendance policy. Most of the time he refuses to have a session if so much as one character can't make it.
- Offscreen Breakup: For the sake of reducing drama, Iria did this to Orpheus in Setting Sail.
- Oh, Crap!: The party upon first seeing the unleashed Tiamat. And then promptly being immolated by her. They got better.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Tiamat would very much like to reduce the Material Plane to a scorch mark, thank you.
- Opening the Sandbox: The end of Act One. Prior to the story, the party was limited to Desna's Gate and petitions that took them out of it. Now the party has the entire world map available to them to freely explore at their whim.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: Rebecca, having just been... well... Took a freshly invented Flintlock Rifle and unloaded 5 shots into the already dead Luke's head. The party simply stood, watched, and left the corpses to rot in the snow.
- Plot Coupon: The Orbs. The plot won't be going much of anywhere else without them.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The main reason the party as a whole isn't completely eliminated. They're already after what the villains are after, so better to let them gather all of the orbs, then kill them. Rather than just kill them outright.
- The Quest: The party disbands from the Adventurer's Guild to seek out the Orbs of Dragonkind and put a stop to the Obsidian Army.
- Redshirt Army:
- The Desna Gate's guards. They were essentially there to die to show how powerful the Generals were.
- Then there was the Morden Army, the Orc Army, the Obsidian Forces, the Imperial Forces... Just don't join the army in this campaign.
- Refuge in Audacity: The episode aptly named Refuge In Audacity. When your players are talking about a foursome with each other, two of these characters being dragons and one a Paladin, you know some lines are being crossed.
- Serial Escalation: Ren has thrown the party further and further with each session. They've gone from running around cleaning sewers and wiping out run of the mill bandits to flying around on dragons trying to save the world from an Evil Army. Their first real boss fight was a bugbear. Then they went and killed flaming minotaur twins who could fuse into an even bigger version of themselves, a bigger than Colossal Sky Worm, killing an ancient God-King. And then finally killing Tiamat herself.
- Suddenly Sober: Most of the party gets raging drunk at every tavern they enter before realizing that there's actually an important conversation going on.
- Summoning Artifact: The Orbs are required to break Tiamat's prison and summon her to wreak havoc on the world.
- The Talk:Zoq: What big people talking about?
Mickey: Sex with dragons, Zoq.
Zoq: ...
(Zoq looks at Mickey with a perplexed look)
Zoq: What is sex?
- Thirsty Desert: Deathcrag is this if you're not with a well stoked caravan.
- A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: The entire first half of Setting Sail is a laundry list of total impulsive stupidity. It didn't help that most to all of the party was dropping-down drunk.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: Raus and Tathar sure don't, but Raus wouldn't mind if it meant he could stay with Anna.
- With Friends Like These...: There are a few members of the party who don't get along particularly well with one another, namely Orpheus and Eliza.
- World Tree: In Ashwood. Appropriately, the actual Yggdrasil is said to be an Ash tree.
AND SO ENDS THE TALE OF A NEW AGE. LAUGHS WERE HAD. TRAILS WERE UNDERGONE. AND THE WORLD WAS PUT IN PERIL, AS IT IS WONT TO BE.
BUT IN THE END. GOOD PREVAILED AND EVIL FELL.
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, I BID YOU FINE GENTLEMEN.
A FOND FAREWELL.
But before I go...
Can I perhaps interest you...
In some Fine Leather Coats?
